‘Little House on the Prairie’: Michael Landon Admitted He Wasn’t Like His TV Character
Little House on the Prairie star Michael Landon was loved by his fans and co-stars. He had a squeaky-clean image on his television show, and many believed he was just like his character in real life. However, Landon made it clear he was not his character, Charles Ingalls.
In real life, Landon was just like everyone else. He said he wasn’t the angelic person everyone wanted him to be. Here’s what Landon and co-star Alison Arngrim said about his image.
Michael Landon faced backlash after his affair was discovered
Landon received criticism after it became clear he was seeing another woman while married to his second wife, Lynn Noe (he fell in love with his third wife, Cindy, during the filming of Little House). In his final interview with Life magazine, Landon said Noe spoke about their relationship and divorce to the media.
“The divorce was very painful,” said Landon. “My wife was badly wounded, and she told her side of the story on television talk shows. The tabloids had a feast.”
According to Landon, some people assumed his career would be ruined after the news of his affair got out. However, he thought it was unfair that his public and personal lives were being compared.
“Many people thought the scandal would destroy my career,” said Landon in his essay for Life. “They said I couldn’t fight for my television family and then run out on my real family. The public would condemn me as a hypocrite. But I never gave a second thought to my career. Hey, like my work or don’t like my work. But don’t live my life. It’s not yours.”
Michael Landon admitted he wasn’t like his TV character
The public expected Landon to be just like his TV character, Charles Ingalls. However, Landon said he wasn’t like Charles at all. They were two different people, and it was important to separate fiction from reality.
Landon declared he was not a “Mr. Goody Two-Shoes.” He said people often had this impression of him, but he wasn’t perfect, according to his interview in the book Conversations With Michael Landon.
Alison Arngrim says Michael Landon wasn’t a ‘saint’
When Landon died, Alison Arngrim (she played Nellie Oleson) says interviewers wanted her to focus on the “saintly” side of him. They desired to portray him as if he were really Charles Ingalls in the flesh—a man who could do no wrong.
However, Arngrim didn’t experience him that way and she couldn’t understand why everyone felt the need to portray a deceased person—especially a celebrity—as a saint after their death.
Arngrim says she didn’t feel like interviewers gave her the space to tell the story of what Landon was really like. She says he was a regular guy who “smoked, drank, swore, told horrible jokes, never wore underwear, and celebrated the end of the season by taking us all to the racetrack,” says Arngrim in her book, Confessions of a Prairie B****.
In her book The Way I See It, Melissa Sue Anderson says she gave a quote to USA Today shortly after Landon’s death. Although Landon was just like anyone else and had flaws, Anderson told the publication he was “America’s Family Man.”
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